The sounds of the next incoming wave began to thunder across the trenches. Icalia and Jailen hadn’t been able to tell me the makeup of the different waves, but it sounded very similar, at least.

From the first wave, I estimated we had about 30 seconds until the mobs found us.

I looked around the corner, getting a quick read on the players that had been defending the junction ahead. There were four of them, and I saw, to my delight, that Git and Damien were part of the crew. I noted one mercenary among them, but I couldn’t see its class from here. I turned to Icalia.

“They have a merc with them. Do you recognize him?” I asked.

She swapped places with me, quickly glancing around the corner. When she turned to me, she had a smile on her face.

“He won’t be a problem at all,” she replied.

I nodded.

And we waited.

Thirty seconds later, the horde was nearly on top of us now, the sound deafening.

I gave the signal to my mercs. Jailen filled the trench we were in with his [Quicksand] area-of-effect, and Icalia’s [Firewall] soon followed, creating a killing zone for any hyena mobs coming down this way.

With that done, Jailen cast [Loam Defense] on Icalia, while Icalia cast [Burning Coat] on me.

Then she sprinted into the junction right in the middle of the four players and the single merc.

Even over the thunderous sounds of the horde, I heard the merc shout out a warning, “Friendly fire!” The players were slow to act, looking at the merc in confusion. They were still gathered near the center of the junction, and had just been about to split up to cover both trenches when Icalia was right on top of them.

Liquid embers began to coalesce around her, forming a snake-like apparition of fire. The animated fire grew thicker over the next few seconds, forming a dense cocoon around her.

Damien - the druid, and Git’s sidekick - was the first to react. He raised his hands above his head and began chanting something lost to the deafening noise of the incoming horde. A thunder cloud began to form over his head, but he was just a beat behind Icalia.

The cocoon of fire surrounding her was white hot and so dense she was barely visible beneath it. One of the players I didn’t know launched an arrow at her from close range. A clod of dirt intercepted the arrow, and I received a combat notification that showed me the damage of the attack, and the 25% mitigation from Jailen’s defensive spell.

Icalia’s health went down 15%.

And then, all hell was unleashed.

The fire surrounding Icalia began orbiting her, faster and faster, before finally unleashing in a wave of utter destruction.

The wave exploded out in a circle, creating a super-heated zone around her for meters in every direction. Git had been the closest, rearing back for a strike with his two-handed sword, when the wave of fire hit him. His face immediately shifted from angry concentration, to panic and fear. A health bar appeared over his head, draining rapidly. The others became embroiled in the fire as the wave finished expanding, just as the first of the hyena mobs became visible across the junction in the other trench.

I raced out now, skirting the edge of the trench to avoid the firestorm, and took up a defensive position at the trench entrance. The four players were scrambling away from Icalia, who was chasing them like kids playing tag at recess. The spell didn’t have much time left, but the damage was enormous. Damien fell dead first, his skin scorched black. A notification appeared in my vision, but I swiped it away. Then I saw the player with the bow fall, followed shortly by the mercenary they had in their employ.

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The other two players were both melee fighters with more health, and had managed to survive long enough for the spell to peter out. I kept one eye on them as the first of the hyena mobs came loping up to me. I lazily swiped the first one out of the air, but dodged the second one, letting it into the junction like a raging bull at a rodeo. Icalia had rushed to my side after the spell had ended, leaving the two wounded players huddled against a wall, watching us with fear and anger in their eyes. Git shouted something at me that was lost in the noise.

But as soon as they saw the hyena mob jump past me, their eyes grew wide. Just as I had hoped, the hyena didn’t turn back to try again with me, but kept its forward momentum, racing towards Git and the other player. They managed to chop it down, just as I did the same to a third. I let a fourth run past, then a fifth, before skewering a sixth.

The two hyenas I had let past leaped towards the players, one being cut down immediately while its brother latched onto Git’s arm. His health had only just begun to recover, and the mob tearing at his arm brought him back into the red.

I swiped another hyena from the air, then typed out a quick message to Jailen and Icalia.

RayGun47: Switch!

They didn’t need any explaining. Jailen immediately dropped his quicksand, while Icalia raced to the other trench to cover the mobs that managed to make it through her firewall. I stayed on my side, taking out the mobs relatively easily now that my confidence was up. With Icalia’s burning coat skill on me, any attacks that broke through reflected on the mobs, meaning I could be a little lazy as I watched my plan unfold.

The two players had dealt with the last mobs, so I let another race past - then another. They were so distracted with the incoming mobs, that they didn’t notice Jailen behind them, casting a spell.

As the two hyenas leapt at Git and his friend, the earth beneath them liquefied, causing them to stumble in surprise. The quicksand spell was directly under them now, and they were reduced to a crawl. I turned back to my own trench, a satisfied smile on my face.

It was only a matter of time, now.

I killed three more mobs, letting another four past within moments. A quick glance behind me showed Git and the other player surrounded. Git was on the ground, two mobs chewing on his leg like dogs on a chew toy. A third lunged for his throat, and his health dropped to zero. His friend was quickly overwhelmed, and his health bottomed out as well. Jailen immediately swapped his quicksand skill over to my trench, slowing the flow of mobs so that I could leave it unattended to finish off the hyenas that had killed Git.

As I ran over to the loose mobs, I held out my hand, pulling in the dropped gold from the four players. I didn’t have time to scope out how much I had picked up, but it looked to be at least as much as BigSword had dropped.

There were four hyenas running around, and when I charged, three of them immediately turned to me. The fourth charged towards Icalia, but her and Jailen were able to handle the lone mob. I cut down one hyena with a swipe of my poleaxe, while another latched onto my leg, and the third was on my back, clawing at my head.

My health started dropping, down 3% within moments. But I felt Icalia’s burning coat spell reflect the damage, singing the mobs even as they attacked. I smashed the hyena wrapped around my arm into the ground, killing it instantly. The one on my back killed himself through the reflect damage, though my health was down 5% by that point. It fell off with a whimper, then curled in on itself as it died.

The mobs in the quicksand trench were almost out of the spell, so I raced back over to start whittling them down again. Back in the choke point, I knew I would be able to hold the hyenas off pretty much indefinitely in conjunction with Jailen’s quicksand.

Now the question was: would the four of them respawn, effectively trapping themselves here with me again? Or would they wait for the wave to end and try to make a break for it when the trenches cleared?

Either way, I wasn’t letting them get off so easy.

I was falling into a groove by this point, the mobs not really serving as any sort of challenge.

I took a look at the event log to see where I was on the bonus objective and when the wave would end. I wanted to be ready for when Git and them tried to escape.

Time remaining: 1 hour 16 minutes

Bonus Objective: 436/1000

I was pleased with that progress. There were six minutes left in the wave, and I was almost halfway through the objective. If I had to guess, I imagined Icalia had probably killed the majority of the mobs with her firewall, and I knew she was paying dividends despite her high gold cost. Plus, whatever gold I had looted from the four players undoubtedly offset both her and Jailen’s price.

I was feeling comfortable - too comfortable I soon realized. As the timer hit 1 hour 15 minutes, a new sound began to compete with the thunderous stampede of the hyenas.